Windows Vista & External Hard Drives

[Redz]

Last winter I purchased a new Gateway which came with Windows Vista.  To go along with it I bought a Western Digital "My Book" external hard drive.  I've used a Western Digital external hard drive with my shop computer computer flawlessly for years, but the one I purchased for the new computer never really worked right.  The USB connection would be recognized once, then never again until it was disconnected, reconnected and the computer was rebooted - not really the convenience I was looking for, or used to with my work one.  My computer at work runs an older version of Windows which I'm perfectly happy with.

A couple of questions

1) Has anyone else experienced any issues with Western Digital products running on Vista

2) Any other suggestions for external hard drives

Mac users please keep your Mac superiority comments out of this!

Thanks

[eddietours]

try to change the HD letter under computer management

[BuckeyeCelt]

I know this really isn't much help, but I am running a 500 GB MyBook on 2 different windows vista machines and I haven't run into any issues...

Hope it all works out for you...

The only other thing I could think of is, if you have the ability to switch your connection maybe you could give that a try.   If you are using USB go firewire or visa versa...perhaps the port on your harddrive is bad...just throwing things out there

[rajonrondo9]

I have a Western Digital My Passport (320) and it works fine with Vista.  Perhaps it has something to do with changing your OS.  Try finding the drivers online.

[indeedproceed]

I know this isn't what you're looking for, but I've had a macbook pro now for sixth months and I love the backup features. All I do is think of what I want backed up, and the smart integrated iThought feature sees the intentions in my mind, and beams the data to a remote server made of candy. Then, when I want to access the data again, I just think of it, and down it comes, magically accompanied by an andies mint.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Have you tried connecting it to a different USB port? I know I've had problems in the past with some external HDDs being recongnized without problems in one USB port and having the problem you describe above in another. It buggles my mind because both USB ports should be working without problems.

[Redz]

I've tried pretty much any combo of switching ports, switching chords etc...I think maybe the actual particular hard drive has some issues...of course it's off warranty now since I assumed it was a Vista issue.

[Redz]

Have you tried connecting it to a different USB port? I know I've had problems in the past with some external HDDs being recongnized without problems in one USB port and having the problem you describe above in another. It buggles my mind because both USB ports should be working without problems.

It will recognize it once.  Then I have to unplug it before rebooting etc...As a result I never backed up anything nad had a big scare when our house got zapped by lightning this summer.  Thankfully we only lost the mother board and our printer.

[CoachCowens]

make sure you are running SP1. type winver at a cmd propmpt to make sure.
I bought a laptop for my wife about a month ago and was suprised to see SP1 wasn't loaded
 

[Redz]

make sure you are running SP1. type winver at a cmd propmpt to make sure.
I bought a laptop for my wife about a month ago and was suprised to see SP1 wasn't loaded
 

What is SP1?

[BudweiserCeltic]

Vista Service Pack 1. Came out a couple of months ago. If you keep your computer updated, it should have it already. If not, there should be a standalone download somewhere in microsoft.com.  Probably about 500mb.

[eddietours]

http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/index.html

[zerophase]

this may be a stupid question but is the port a usb 2.0 port? i've never had any issues with windows recognizing external hard drives, only macs because most drives come formatted for windows. it might just be that you got unlucky and got a dud for a hd. oh and make sure your software is up to date with vista. judging by the age of your computer, vista is now a lot less buggy which many fix the issue.

[Bob Day]

Get a Mac.

[Redz]

Get a Mac.

Didn't I warn against that one!

Mac users please keep your Mac superiority comments out of this!

Thanks

I've downloaded the Service pack

Thanks for the tips